How have you been? Ready for apple harvest time yet? Pies, crisps, sauce (my friend shared her amazing technique to do apple sauce, I’ll share it soon!), butter, etc! Well, if you want to spice up (no pun intended) your usual apple crisp, here is a layered one, in a jar, with spiced apples and maple whipped cream. It’s soooooooo good! And you know I’m not a big fan of fruit desserts. But THIS, this is yummy!

Let me know what you think about it!

Apple crisp with Maple Whipped Cream and Spiced Apple in a JarYield : about 4 jars
Spiced Apples Recipe adapted from A la DiStasioApple crisp in a jar adapted from Ricardo

Ingredients
Spiced apples

1/2 cup brown sugar

Juice of two lemons

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 bay leaves

3 peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

3 cloves

Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean

6 cups apples peeled, cored and cut into cubes

2 x ½ teaspoons butter

1/8 cup apple juice

Whipped Cream

1 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon maple extract

** You could also put about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup instead of the sugar and the extract.

Crisp

½ cup oat

¼ cup flour

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled

¼ cup brown sugar

PreparationSpiced apples

Preheat oven to 275ºF.

With a mortar and a pestle, grind the peppercorns and cloves together.
In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, the spices (except the bay leaves), the vanilla seeds and the lemon juice. Add the apples and mix well.

Spread the apples in a large baking tin. Add the bay leaves, butter and drizzle with apple juice. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 50 minutes or until the apples are tender. Let cool completely.

Crisp

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the butter and mix until combined.

Spread on the cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes. Stir and continue baking until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Let cool completely.

Whipped Cream

In a bowl, add the cream, the sugar and the maple extract. Whip until soft peaks form.

Assembly

Fill a pastry bag with the whipped cream. Pipe a layer of cream at the base of each jar.

It’s apple time here in Quebec! My sister and I went to pick some (ok I admit it, a lot of) apples last week. It’s time to do all sort of apple recipes: puree, crisp, cake and so on!

What is funny with this blog is I’m not used to translating recipes from French to English (the other way around is much easier!). I have on the contrary no problem doing a recipe that is written in English. Well, it’s true that it’s not the same to understand and to translate, but still, I though that it would be easier! For this post, I didn’t know what a croustade aux pommes was in English. I thought it was apple crust, but when I searched the web, it really wasn’t! And then there was the crumble, which resemble but isn’t the same thing as a crisp! So I finally figured out the name (I think!).

This is a very easy recipe. It takes about 15 minutes… hum, depending on your dexterity to peel apples (I am improving, but this is the longest part of this recipe). Here is the recipe!

Before I forget, I just added some facts in the about me page. You might like to take a look!

Apple Crisp
Yield : not enough! I strongly suggest you double the recipe. About 6 portions.

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Combine the oat, flour, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter. Mix well. Reserve.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, the cinnamon and the apples. (I prefer to do the apple mix after the crisp one because the apples tend to turn brown quickly)
4. Put the apple mix in a square baking pan (8 or 9 po). Add the crisp mix evenly over apples. Bake for about 50 minutes or until brown and crispy.
5. This is heavenly with vanilla ice cream!